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The Reference Library

The Family Tree Forum has its own Reference Library. It currently holds over 4500 pages of information and links which were entirely created and are maintained by the members.

When the Family Tree Forum started out, the boards quickly became crowded with recommendations for websites on a wide variety of topics as well as a rapidly growing accumulation of advice and wisdom from the old hands at genealogical research.

A group of likely victims was approached to help with the organisation of these threads and in March 2007, the first faltering steps were taken in programming the pages in Mediawiki. None of the four people who began creating the pages had ever used this method of coding before, but it soon became second nature for them, others joined them and eventually the reference threads were all transferred to their new home. The membership of the team, known as SCADS (Site Content and Development) changed as some were unable to continue and others joined, and in June 2008 the Library was opened up to all members to edit and the SCAD team were disbanded.

In January 2010, it was decided to take advantage of the new version of the software which is used to run the forum and much of the content is to be moved from its first home to where you see it now. This will be an ongoing process. Members will not be able to edit the pages directly, but will still be able to contribute content and to alert us to any problems such as broken links.

Alongside the categorised links, sections have been created which aim to give help and advice on any aspect of genealogical research. These are a mixture of pointers to useful sites and how to use them together with advice from experienced researchers on how to go about tracing your ancestors and creating a family tree.

In addition to the sections of the Reference Library which can be accessed from the left hand menu of the Home Page, there are several other important areas. These sections of the library are also accessible from the Site Projects section in the left hand menu.